legacycentral bbs

Hello all, I need your help once again. I have a 2000 Pontiac Montana minivan and after taking it in for maintenance, it runs hot. Here's what happened. I took it in for a major tune-up with included draining and refilling the cooling system. It never had a problem before this. So as I go to pick it up there is Dexcool all over their floor from the coolant boiling over. They say that the thermostat may be sticking but they get it to work. When I take it I noticed the temp guauge was at the halfway point. It never got that high before. Then it start to climb to the point where it's close to the redzone. I took it back to the place today and they run some coolant flush through it and that didn't fix the problem so they again say its the thermostat. I bite the bullet and pay fir this only to find out it didn't solve a damn thing. Now I'm really pissed! Now they say that they "think" the radiator is clogged or bad. WTF??? Shouldn't the flush have taken care of the clogged situation?

So they tell me that they will purchase a radiator and install it to see if that will fix it and if it does, they'll charge me for that but if it doesn't they won't charge me. What do I do? At this point I'm ready to cut my losses and take it to the dealer to see if they can fix it and if they can, try to sue the other guys. They have given me a few price concessions and military discounts since the owner is retired military but I'm still down $600 with a broken van. Am I being too harsh or am I getting screwed. I have to say I think its the second one. Please Help.

Don't know much about the Montana, but when I had to replace the thermostat on my Mazda it was an $8 part and took maybe five minutes to install. So if you're down several hundred dollars from that I'd lean toward screwed also.

Not charging you for the part if it doesn't work sounds like a pretty damn good deal to me, though. Mechanics don't do that often. It kind of depends on the price if it does work, though.

Well the price for the radiator is another $300 plus labor. I've been peeved all day about this. It was the same scenario as far as the t-stat goes...a $14 part but with a 2.5 hr install. I really feel like I shouldn't have touched the car but I was worried about something going wrong later.

kinda sounds like theres an air bubble in there.

"that there joe montainya"

Possibly there was a chunk of shit in the system somewhere that got dislodged by the flush and moved to block or partially block something. Unlikely with something 2000, but other than a HG or water pump I don't know.

I hope its nothing serious but I'm pissed because the van was perfectly fine before they touched it. I'm not saying they did something wrong but they had problems with it when I went to pick it up. What, if any, legal recourse would I have if it is found that they screwed up?

This is why I refuse to buy GM. Except for a classic muscle car, but I don't have the money for that right now.

You probably won't be able to do anything legally. Unless you have an extended warranty or you can prove that the mechanic shop is phuckin you, you're looking at this problem all by yourself. A judge would likely tell you you wasted even more money on court papers. GM happens. It's how it goes.

Best thing to do: take it somewhere else and get a second opinion. You might have to bite the bullet and visit the dealer. The air bubble theory seems possible, so does a blockage. It could even be something nobody's thought of. Maybe someone here has seen this sort of thing before and can share some insight. Try snooping around some GM forums. You're probably not the first person this has happened to.

Best of luck. And thanks for serving.

Thanks for the replies all. I think I will take a look at the GM forums to see if I can find some help. I really don't care for GM either but this hasn't been a bad car... It did have major tranny work before but luckily it was under warranty and there was the issue of the window coming off the track repeatedly. Since then it hasn't given us any trouble. I don't care for GM (generic motors lol) because they all look alike and the interior seems to be made of cheap materials. If you look at something long enough it'll break.

fan electrical connection unplugged prob?
or else they took out the fan fuse. you got screwed sorry.

The fan works but yeah, I got screwed. Today it didn't go over half-way so I think I'll leave it as-is if no problems develop.